Dimensions of Baptist Spirituality: Under the Rule of Christ

It's here. Just received in the post my copies of the most recent Regent Study Guide entitled Under the Rule of Christ. Dimensions of Baptist Spirituality, Paul Fiddes (Ed.), Smyth and Helwys, 2008 (ISBN: 978-095397 - 4-1). The book arose out of a request from the Baptist Union Retreat Group to the UK College Principals to write something on spirituality amongst Baptists. The result was a series of papers which we wrote, reviewed together, revised in the light of our discussions, and then offered for publication.

Here's the blurb from the publisher

In this book the Principals of the six Baptist colleges in Great Britain take up a request to write about Baptist spirituality. They propose that the spirituality of Baptists, in all its diversity, is characterized by living ‘under the rule of Christ’. While all Christian spiritual traditions affirm this truth, they suggest that there is a particular sense of being under Christ’s rule which has been shaped by the story of Baptists and by their way of being church through the centuries. Elaborating the main theme, chapters explore various dimensions of spirituality: giving attention to God and to others, developing spirituality through suffering, having spiritual liberty within a community, living under the rule of the Word in Christ and scripture, integrating the Lord’s Supper with the whole of life, and engaging in the mission of God from an experience of grace. Together, the writers present an understanding of prayer and life in which Christ is both the final authority and the
measure of all things.

Chris Ellis is Principal Emeritus of Bristol Baptist College; Paul Fiddes is Principal of Regent’s Park College, Oxford; Steven Finamore is Principal of Bristol Baptist College; James Gordon is Principal of the Scottish Baptist College, Glasgow; Richard Kidd is Principal of Northern Baptist College, Manchester; John Weaver is Principal of the South Wales Baptist College, Cardiff; Nigel Wright is Principal of Spurgeon’s Baptist College, London.

My own chapter "Spirituality and Scripture: the Rule of the Word" is an exploration of how Baptists live with the theological tensions inherent in the Baptist declaration of Principle. That tension is both vital and creative, and calls us as Baptists to live in that dynamic place of personal trust, seeking to reconcile in obedient discipleship, faith as personal encounter with and commitment to "Christ as the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice" while at the same time holding to Scripture with a faithfulness that takes just as seriously the crucial qualifier "as revealed in Holy Scripture".

Later this year, on November 27 at Newton Mearns Baptist Church, the Rev Dr Stephen Holmes, Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the University of St Andrews, will deliver the inaugural lecture of the Scottish Baptist Theological Study Group. The lecture will be on "Baptists and the Authority of Scripture", and Steve will approach the subject as a Baptist theologian, deeply evangelical in conviction, and from a personal perspective that is both pastoral and academic. In a postmodern context impatient with authority claims, dismissive of denominational loyalty as unnecessarily limited in perspective, in an overall situation of church decline and loss of theological confidence, conviction is more than ever an essential component of identity.

How Baptists interpret the Bible indicates how Baptists use the Bible. And if we think at all about that sentence then we should be more than a little uneasy with that word "use". The nature of the authority under which we seek to faithfully follow after Christ is of the first theological importance, and for that reason can become an issue of personal and at times rancorous disagreement. But for Baptists there is an underlying spirituality that arises out of what we have historically called Baptist Principles. Central to these is the person and place of Jesus Christ.

We love and serve the crucified, risen and coming Christ who is living and present in the Church which is His body. We seek together to discern the mind of Christ, as a fellowship of believers, a gathered and covenanted community, and as such a complete Church because Christ is present in its gathering. It is in this process of seeking the mind of Christ that we regularly gather, assuming His promised presence in our gathering, trusting the superintendence of the Holy Spirit who moving amongst and within our hearts interprets the truth of Christ, and with mind and heart open and obedient to Scripture as it is opened, read and pondered, so that in this dynamic force field of divine initiative, human longing, shared learning and redemptive love, we seek to follow after the One who always goes before us, beckoning us to follow.

The "church meeting" is, therefore, in all actuality and with deliberate intent, the Church meeting its Lord - nothing less than that level of reality and truthfulness does justice to the principles by which as Baptists, we claim to live. A Baptist hermeneutic of Scripture, worked out in such a spiritually dynamic and communally discerning context, is something quite different from many other models based on different theological principles; amongst other things, it is such an hermeneutic that entitles us ever to use the word radical for the Baptist way of being the Church. Indeed the word radical is rendered semantically redundant wherever Baptist identity issues in the faithful and principled practice of Christ-centred community living.

Amongst the Scripture stories that inform how as Baptist we might 'use' Scripture, is the account of the disciples on the way to Emmaus. The risen Christ, drawing near, opens the Scripture, patiently and with persistent authority - then in the breaking of bread, their eyes are opened. The words of Christ about opened Scripture, and the shared meal of broken bread, impel hesitant faith towards recognition, and trustful joy towards an unknown but accompanied future. This Malaysian Icon captures the surprise on the two disciples' faces - the place of fellowship, where, in the presence of the risen Christ, Scripture is opened and bread is broken, becomes the place of recognition and revelation; the place too, where all our assumptions about our lives and possible futures are radically revised by each encounter with the One who goes before us, lovingly daring us to follow.

Posted by Jim Gordon.

Comments

[Margaret]

What's the Scottish Baptist Theological Study Group? Where and when do they meet? Who is "in the group"? How do you get to be "in the group"? Just curious.....

[Jim Gordon]

The name is provisional Margaret - and likely to change because it's hard to avoid words like 'group', 'society', but they have a kind of closed feel to them that is entirely unintended.

The initial meeting was set up by Andrew Rollinson, our Ministry Advisor at the Baptist Union of Scotland by an email circular inviting expressions of interest - not sure who was on that first list. But the intention is to get such a discussion forum under way and make it into an inclusive place for creative reflection, responsible discussion and respectful listening about issues and themes important for the ongoing life and health of Baptist thought and practice.

At this first meeting, as well as the lecture, we hope a broader discussion will help clarify what we want to be about, and how best to develop through thoughtful, informed discussion together, Baptist ways of thought and practice that arise out of such a process of theological reflection.

So I guess the invitation is to all those who are open to and supportive of the intended ethos of "an inclusive place for creative reflection, responsible discussion and respectful listening about issues and themes important for the ongoing life and health of Baptist thought and practice". At this stage it is only being initiated - what it becomes will largely be determined by those who want to make this journey together.

My personal conviction is that such a shared journey can only be taken if the journey itself is inclusive and welcoming, accessible and jargon free, contextually sensitive but challenging, and therefore enabling practice which arises out of shared learning 'in the school of Christ'; and that such a journey of learning and discovery means our willingness to travel together in conversation, companionship, and commitment to live together 'under the rule of Christ'.

Hope that helps with the 'just curious' questions - for which many thanks!

[Lee Stewart]

I just came across this Blog via ohter Blogs. It sounds like a fasinating topic & I will read it when i get a chance. Over the years, all I have heard is comments about spirituality that refers to the form that is seen as Catholic in some form or a contemporary version of it, with the belief that anyone outside of a liturgical tradition do not have any spirituality. I cannot wait to prove them wrong!

[Margaret]

so have the group met yet??

[Stuart Blythe]

Hello Margaret

The group meet this Thursday (27 November)at Newton Mearns Baptist at 7.30pm. I'll post a report about it here - are you coming?